Cabbie resisted arrest in Roslyn Heights: police

Patricia Piacente of Selden was arrested in Roslyn Heights early Saturday morning. (Photo from Nassau County Police Department)

Police arrested a cab driver in Roslyn Heights early Saturday morning who was allegedly on drugs while carrying a passenger.

Cops found heroin and drug paraphernalia in Patricia M. Piacente’s car, in which she had a paying customer in the back seat, police said.

Piacente, 50, of Selden, was seen swerving between lanes while driving west on the Long Island Expressway in her yellow 2005 Ford Crown Victoria at 5:35 a.m. Saturday, police said.

Piacente refused to pull over even after cops told her to using a loudspeaker, police said. When she finally pulled over she refused to take her keys out of the ignition, and pushed an officer who did remove the keys, police said.

Police searched Piacente’s backpack and found heroin, the narcotic painkiller Suboxone, a needle and straws used to inhale cocaine, police said.

Piacente was arraigned at First District Court in Hempstead on Sunday on charges of second-degree reckless endangerment, operating a motor vehicle while impaired by drugs, reckless driving, second-degree obstructing governmental administration, four counts of seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, and two traffic infractions.

Piacente’s bail was set at $7,500, court records show. She is being represented by the Nassau County Legal Aid Society and is due back in court on Wednesday.

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